Protective devices are known which comprise elongated sheathes or bags that fit around the arm or leg of a user to cover a cast or bandage that has been applied to the arm or leg. The protector prevents the cast or bandage from getting wet. As such, it is used primarily when the user is bathing in a bath or shower. However, it is not limited to that use, but could also be worn while the user is outside to prevent rain from reaching the cast or bandage.
Certain protectors of the prior art comprise bags that, are closed at one end and open at the other end. A strap is attached to the bag near the open end of the bag. The strap carries a buckle at one end. The other end of the strap is, free to be inserted through the buckle.
In using these protectors, the user inserts whatever limb has the cast or bandage into the bag until the cast or bandage is located within the bag. The user then threads the free end of the strap through the buckle and pulls back on the free end of the strap to cinch the strap tight. The free end of the strap is then secured in place using Velcro fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,125 to Goldman and U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,765 to Brown show such bags having buckle carrying straps adjacent the open end of the bag.
While the protectors shown in the above described patents are useful, they are quite expensive and are not adapted to a single use. For example, the closed end of the bags mimic the shape of a hand or foot. This requires that pieces of plastic material first be cut with the necessary shape. The protectors are then finished by assembling the cut pieces together, i.e. by securing the pieces to each other along their edges. The expense involved in this cutting and assembly greatly increases the cost of these protectors.
In addition, the securing straps used in these protectors are often made of a fabric material that is sewn or otherwise attached to the bags. Moreover, Velcro material is used to fasten the straps in place after the straps are tightened. This Velcro material is itself expensive. Accordingly, due to the expense involved in manufacturing and selling such protectors, they are not truly disposable after a single use. These protectors have never been commercialized to the best of the Applicant's knowledge.
Since the expense of these protectors dictates trying to reuse them, the user would normally try and remove the protectors and keep them until a future time when they might. be needed again. However, this is not a good solution due to the need for such protectors to dry thoroughly and because of the possibility of bacterial or other contamination after their first use. Thus, as a practical matter, such protectors would not be reused. They are simply too expensive to constitute a product that can be disposed after a single use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,511 to Rankin attempts to provide a disposable protector having a strap for tightening the open end of the bag. Rankin teaches using a plastic strap without a buckle instead of the buckle carrying straps of the Goldman or Brown protectors. In addition, the free end of the Rankin strap is secured by adhesive rather than by Velcro fasteners. While this would potentially decrease the cost of the Rankin protector, the lack of a buckle on a simple plastic type strap decreases its utility and makes one handed application very difficult.
Without a buckle, the Rankin strap cannot be cinched back on itself. Thus, when force is applied to the end of the strap, such force would often simply tend to rotate the entire protector around the limb without tightening the strap. The Rankin strap could probably be tightened adequately by a user having two hands such as when the protector is placed over a cast on the user's leg. But, when the user has only one hand to use, such as when the protector is placed over the user's other arm, the tendency of the bag to slide around the arm when the user tightens the strap is a great disadvantage. The Rankin protector is not. suited for one handed application.